Abstract
This is a study of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria, and how it affected the 2015 General Elections in the country. The Boko Haram is a Muslim fundamentalist sect founded in 2002, but the insurgency it mounted in Nigeria in 2009 has dovetailed into politics. By the time of the 2015 elections in Nigeria, the insurgency had become the foremost political issue in the country. Boko Haram was central in the campaigns for the elections, and the fortunes of the political parties and their candidates literally depended on where they stood concerning the Boko Haram matter. Interestingly, the elections also affected the fortunes of Boko Haram as the incumbent government at the time had to come out in full force against the sect as a way of shoring up its chances at the polls. Since after the polls, the viability of the insurgency has considerably reduced, although the sect continues to pose a threat to the country. This paper argues that beyond victory in the battlefi eld, the government of Nigeria must also improve on its governance practices in order to remove the socio-economic conditions that help to sustain Boko Haram and other such militant groups in Nigeria.
Highlights
No other issue probably shadowed the 2015 general elections in Nigeria more than the Boko Haram insurgency in the northern part of the country
The group known as Boko Haram was formed in 2002 in Maiduguri, capital of Borno State in northern Nigeria by Mohammed Yusuf, a Muslim cleric who had been associated with radical Islamic youth movements in the 1990s (Sergie & Johnson, 2014)
The Boko Haram insurgency was at the centre of the 2015 general elections in Nigeria
Summary
No other issue probably shadowed the 2015 general elections in Nigeria more than the Boko Haram insurgency in the northern part of the country. The insurgency started much before President Goodluck Jonathan assumed office in Nigeria, immediately he did, the Boko Haram phenomenon became part and parcel of the political calculations in the country. Part of the reasons for Boko Haram assuming this importance can be traced to the controversial circumstances under which President Jonathan came into office in 2010. His assumption of office followed the death of President Musa Yar’ Adua in office in 2009 (Adeniyi, 2011). At the time of President Yar’Adua’s death, there existed a zoning arrangement in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, by which the presidency was to rotate in the first instance, between the North and the South of the country. The North of the country includes 19 of the thirty-six states in Nigeria, while the South includes 17 states
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